3-Cushion
GURI - On the day that the world top of three cushion grew to rarely seen highs, Therese Klompenhouwer showed one last glimpse of her class against Torbjörn Blomdahl, the player she admires so much. Then she prepared slowly for a glorious farewell to the World Cup, in which she battled so bravely, shoulder to shoulder with the best male players in the world of three cushion. The tournament continues without Therese (who lost 40-20), on a unprecedented level, with most players from the top ten of the rankings still in the race.
Frédéric Caudron made a quickie from his start in this third World Cup of the year, Torbjörn Blomdahl set the tone in Therese's parade, Dick Jaspers confirmed his form he showed with his World Cup victory in Porto, Filipos Kasidokostas won the final sprint against one of the promising Koreans and Sung Won Choi committed fratricide on his young countryman HaengJik Kim.
That's how the world's top five came from the first skirmishes in the Korean arena.
Marco Zanetti, Tayfun Tasdemir and Dani Sánchez from the top twelve did not survive that first round. For Zanetti is it already the third time in a row that he's out after one match in the World Cup cycle, after his brilliant season last year, for Tayfun Tasdemir the second time he can go home after one match.
Jae Ho Cho was the very best day winner (40-19 in 10 innings against Ramon Rodriguez with a run of fourteen) and Frédéric Caudron the fastest winner (in 39 minutes). The level was unbelievable: six of the sixteen matches ended within twenty or less innings. The last session of four showed three matches on world class level: Jae Ho Cho in 10 innings against Ramon Rodriguez, Torbjörn Blomdahl in 12 innings against Therese Klompenhouwer and Murat Naci Coklu in 12 innings against Jin Pyo Hong. Seven players made a run of ten or more. Eddy Merckx (40/19 against Aveiga) also finished around two average.
Five Koreans of the eleven at the start are still in the tournament, the South Americans Rodriguez, Luis Aveiga and Jose Juan Garcia may pack their bags and take the plane, to go home with the beautiful stories about the brilliant level of this World Cup and the gorgeous atmosphere.
The Turkish armada has three top guns in the race after they lost Semih Sayginer and Tayfun Tasdemir: Lütfi Cenet, Ahmet Alp and Murat Naci Coklu.The Belgians, after South Korea (in width) the strongest billiards country, are also with three : Caudron, Merckx and Forthomme. Roland Forthomme switched off the lights in the arena as the last winner, after he beat Marco Zanetti. The Belgian giant seems truly on his way back to the top twelve after his final place in the Porto World Cup.
Jae Ho Cho was rewarded by a standing ovation with his flashy start: he finished as one of the players in the history that played a four-average match.
Frédéric Caudron, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, Murat Naci Coklu and Torbjörn Blomdahl showed that they are in brilliant form, but in this field, nothing is really predictable.
The eighth-finals tomorrow:
Caudron-Heo
Bury-Choi
Nguyen-Kyung Roul Kim
Kang-Kasidokosatas
Merckx-Alp
Jaspers-Cenet
Forthomme-Cho
Coklu-Blomdahl.